Align/HDX/MSH ??

[Cralis]

Hello my cold little shivering friends in the UK! How are we today?? Wait, let me lean back and turn down this aircon a bit... it's a bit warm here in the sunny holiday city of Cape Town. Luckily the shade of Table Mountain, and the sea breeze off the Atlantic ocean helps keep us cool...

Enough of that!

OK, as you all know, I respect your opinions, and as I started my R/C heli hobby off on these forums, and have continued to frequent them, even after moving down to one of the most beautiful cities in the world... ... I am looking for your opinions again.

I am getting more active on a South African forum, but find most of the guys here have very different views from you guys - and as I learnt from you guys, I'm often in 'arguments' about helis...

Now something has come up, and I am looking for your views.

A chap here got himself a HDX500. It looks nice... metal head, sounds great, but as we're not 3D or pro flyers, I'm not sure of it's performance.

I mentioned that I'd like to maybe get the Trex500 one day... and the HDX flyer says he's happy with the HDX. He says the Align is over priced, and seems to think the HDX is as good a heli....

Would, and if so, why would you rather get a Trex over a (an?) HDX?

[moyesboy]

Look also at the new ARK500 already out ahead of the align 500.

[Cralis]

Thanks, but that's not helping my argument here. I'm basically trying to explain to them, and myself, why I would take the Trex500 over the HDX500...

[moyesboy]

Read Robgt's review here:
http://www.trextuning.com/hdx500.php

Then see how the improved SA version flies on 6s1p (two trex450 packs in series) here:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmLnY6oSDWg[/ame]

so no conclusion.
HDX is avaiable now and probably cheaper,but will not have such readily avaiable spares- but if you buy everything on the net it doesn't really matter.
Product life span of the align will probably be better and there are already confusing variants of the HDX, under the 3DX brand (eg cnchelicopter.com).

[robgt]

HDX500 is a superb piece of kit - it's extremely stable, looks the business and is reasonably cheap to purchase too. The original head assembly is not built for 3D as the mixing on it makes the head too slow to react - so if he has one of these heads, make sure he doesn't go for some mad 3D low to the floor, or it will crash!

I've no idea how he knows the Trex500 is overpriced though - unless he works for Align?
No pricing has been released as yet...

Comparing the stock versions of both heli's is probably unfair on the HDX500 (seeing as it now has a 3D version head).

I believe the Trex500 will be the more popular heli, but thats just because it is Align's heli and they have taken over the market - spares will be readily available from everywhere, and cheap to boot. In the UK, the HDX500 has a couple of online outlets...

Cheers,
Rob

[marktigere1]

Hello my cold little shivering friends in the UK! How are we today?? Wait, let me lean back and turn down this aircon a bit... it's a bit warm here in the sunny holiday city of Cape Town. Luckily the shade of Table Mountain, and the sea breeze off the Atlantic ocean helps keep us cool...

Don't know what your talking about.

Its 80 degrees here and at the moment I'm flying up the field in shorts and a T-shirt.

You must have the UK confused with somewhere else

For my 2p, the Trex will offer the best value per crash of any equivalent 500.

Cheers

Mark

[raptorheli2]

pricing indications have been released already, it should be circa 350 UK with motor/esc.

cheers

[robgt]

Ok - fair enough... but comparing estimated prices (Trex500) with actual prices (HDX500) doesn't really make sense

However, if the estimated price is correct, then they are in the same ballpark - the HDX500 with stock motor and ESC is £300.

Cheers,
Rob

[Cralis]

It sounds then, that the HDX isn't a bad machine then, and gives some good competition to the Trex in it's same class. Is the SA the new improved HDX500, that handles better 3D?

[raptorheli2]

rob, you can bet substantial money that 350 will be the price given who said it (bob j)

cheers

[robgt]

The HDX500 is a solid heli, well built, and nice CCPM servo layout. Easy to work on and flys well (as mentioned). It pays the weight penalty for having all metal head and tail assemblies, and G10 frames etc.

Is the SA the new improved HDX500, that handles better 3D?

I'm not sure of the lettering - but the new head assembly is intended to solve the minimal-3D ability of the original head. It appears to have worked!

I don't doubt Bob's knowledge for a second, but considering the pricing is currently speculative, and the competition (for the trex500) is all £300 or under, perhaps a lower price point might be the final release price
Here's hoping anyway
Cheers,
Rob

[raptorheli2]

i won't argue with you there rob, lower pricing will help us all but it won't be sub 300 i think. the 450 is just under 300, but as you say never know.

i think it's safe to say reguardless of the price this thing will outsell anything 20-1 in the same class. align have got it just right (not saying better but brand name now).....thunder tiger threw it all away.

cheers

[robgt]

i think it's safe to say reguardless of the price this thing will outsell anything 20-1 in the same class. align have got it just right (not saying better but brand name now).....thunder tiger threw it all away.

Absolutely
Cheers,
Rob

[moyesboy]

What are thunder tiger up toI wonder?
Their miniT is OK, and the deveolpment story showed theywere running at least one $4000 ($2000 a year) seat of solidworks when they desgned it (unlessthey subed it out). There is no doubt that they have the resources to develop a new heli.
So what exactly are TT'sdevelopment department up to?
Not even any rumours, and the trex600 has just taken half their market share in 6 months!

[Smoothound]

Haven't Align recently lowered the price of the 450S to make it more competitive with the MT? maybe the V2 will drop allowing the 500 to be priced lower...here's hoping